Tech Review: Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Ubuntu 13.04 boosts graphics performance to prepare for phones, tablets

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/ubuntu-13-04-boosts-graphics-performance-to-prepare-for-phones-tablets/

• Raring Ringtail
• supported for 5 years of 12.04
• interim release
• support for 9 months
• 12.04 Long Term Support (LTS) edition
• converge across mobile and desktops
• MIR a replacement for X

Ubuntu servers fly higher in the clouds

• high availability capabilities for OpenStack
• VMware to integrate OpenStack-based networks with VMware's server and network virtualization software
• joint support to customers
• Juju
• deploy to Amazon, OpenStack, and other clouds
• Charms
• open soruce workload
• for most major Web development
• databases
• MongoDB
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• Cassandra
• allows developer to select best tools for application and reduce being tied to specific network

Ring-tailed lemur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-tailed_lemur

• Madagascar 
• not endangered

Bluetooth Keyboard - MOTOROLA ATRIX™ 4G

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/accessories/specialty-items/sku5100303.html#fbid=xEaRF2Sm9AX

• $10

Open source tool for test engineers

http://opensource.com/education/13/4/obsidian

• Obsidian
• JUnit
• Netbeans
• comprehensive 
• easy to maintain
• college of Charleston
• Senior project

Obsidian

http://www.obsidiantest.org/

Samsung Is Spanking Apple in Earnings, Sales

• Apple 
• first profit decline in a decade
• Samsung
• net profit grew by 42%
• almost two times more smartphones
• grew 9 times faster

Google outlaws Android app updates that don't come from its Play store

http://www.zdnet.com/google-outlaws-android-app-updates-that-dont-come-from-its-play-store-7000014574/?s_cid=e550&ttag=e550

Samsung Galaxy S4 teardown: Qualcomm is a big winner

http://www.zdnet.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-teardown-qualcomm-is-a-big-winner-7000014603/?s_cid=e550&ttag=e550

• user replaceable battery
• 9.88 Wh
• 2,600 mAh
• 3.8 V
• 13 mp camera
• 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second
• Snapdragon 1.9 GHz quad-core CPU
• glass fused to display and frame
• 8 of 10 repair-ability score

Quantify the impact of Agile app development

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/ios-app-builder/quantify-the-impact-of-agile-app-development/639?tag=nl.e550&s_cid=e550&ttag=e550

• desired outcomes not what's easy to measure
• balanced measurement regime or none at all

BoxCryptor vs. DropSmack: The battle to secure Dropbox

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/boxcryptor-vs-dropsmack-the-battle-to-secure-dropbox/9424?tag=nl.e550&s_cid=e550&ttag=e550

DropSmack: Using Dropbox to steal files and deliver malware

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/dropsmack-using-dropbox-to-steal-files-and-deliver-malware/9332

Citizenship and U.S. Immigration

Polly J. Price

https://www.coursera.org/course/immigration?from_restricted_preview=1&cid=970224&r=https%3A%2F%2Fclass.coursera.org%2Fimmigration-001%2Fauth%2Fauth_redirector%3Ftype%3Dlogin%26subtype%3Dnormal%26visiting%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fclass.coursera.org%252Fimmigration-001%252Fclass%252Findex

Android's two killer innovations since the iPhone 5 launch

http://www.zdnet.com/androids-two-killer-innovations-since-the-iphone-5-launch-7000014510/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539

• Google Now
• SwiftKey

Asus PadFone 2 review

http://www.zdnet.com/asus-padfone-2-review-7000014571/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539

Natural Language Processing

https://www.coursera.org/course/nlangp?from_restricted_preview=1&cid=970276&r=https%3A%2F%2Fclass.coursera.org%2Fnlangp-001%2Fauth%2Fauth_redirector%3Ftype%3Dlogin%26subtype%3Dnormal%26visiting%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fclass.coursera.org%252Fnlangp-001%252Fclass%252Findex

Natural Language Toolkit

http://nltk.org/

Natural Language Processing with Python

Analyzing Text with the Natural Language Toolkit

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596516499.do?green=FB4442F7-DEE2-529B-9974-AD2B1FBAD1E4&intcmp=af-mybuy-9780596516499.IP

Natural Language Processing

https://www.coursera.org/course/nlangp?from_restricted_preview=1&cid=970276&r=https%3A%2F%2Fclass.coursera.org%2Fnlangp-001%2Fauth%2Fauth_redirector%3Ftype%3Dlogin%26subtype%3Dnormal%26visiting%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fclass.coursera.org%252Fnlangp-001%252Fclass%252Findex

Tech Review: Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Parallella: The $99 Linux supercomputer

http://www.zdnet.com/parallella-the-99-linux-supercomputer-7000014036/?s_cid=rSINGLE&ttag=rSINGLE

• sending out this summer
• Linux number one supercomputer OS
• credit-card sized parallel-processing board
• 90 GLOPS
• like 45GHz CPU
• Ubuntu 12.04

Parallella – Supercomputing for the masses

http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/interviews/parallella-supercomputing-for-the-masses

• Epiphany 16 and 64 cores
• Parallella
• ARM Cortex-A9
• Epiphany based co-processor
• Releasing all specs under opensource
• C and C++

Fast, Faster, Fastest: Linux rules supercomputing

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/fast-faster-fastest-linux-rules-supercomputing/11263

• Beowulf was first a NASA
• 90% of the top 500
• supercomputers are running linux

http://www.adapteva.com/

• Nice video 
• host machine through USB port

http://www.adapteva.com/introduction/

• goal of 100TFLOPS by 2017

Xen becomes a Linux Foundation project

http://www.zdnet.com/xen-becomes-a-linux-foundation-project-7000014025/?s_cid=rSINGLE&ttag=rSINGLE

Amid great expectations, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has arrived

http://www.zdnet.com/amid-great-expectations-the-samsung-galaxy-s4-has-arrived-7000012629/

• both cameras at once
• 25 pics per second
• common phrase translator that works off line
• 100Mbps download and 50Mbps updloads

Samsung Galaxy S4 up for preorder in U.S. today

• $639

Toshiba Excite 10.1" 16GB Tablet w/ Quad-Core Processor, Android 4.0 OS, 1GB RAM ($200)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200913635875

• Tegra 3 Quad core
• Refurb
• very nice for price
• 1.3 lbs
• 14 day return policy
• 1 Sale A Day
• 98% positive rating